Produced by David Widger
LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
By Benjamin Disraeli
‘He left us the legacy of heroes: the memory of his great name and the
inspiration of his great example.’
TO
LORD HENRY BENTINCK,
IS INSCRIBED
This Political Biography
ONE FOR WHOM HE ENTERTAINED A DEEP AFFECTION,
AND WHOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES
HE SHARES.
LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
[Illustration: bentink-page009]
CHAPTER I.
_The Man_
THE political career of Lord George Bentinck was peculiar. He had, to
use his own expression, ‘sate in eight Parliaments without having taken
part in any great debate,’ when remarkable events suddenly impelled him
to advance and occupy not only a considerable but a leading position
in our public affairs. During three years, under circumstances of great
difficulty, he displayed some of the highest qualities of political
life: courage and a lofty spirit; a mastery of details which experience
usually alone confers; a quick apprehension and a clear intelligence;
indomitable firmness; promptness, punctuality, and perseverance which
never failed; an energy seldom surpassed; and a capacity for labour
which was perhaps never equalled. At the very moment when he had
overcome many contrarieties and prejudices; when he had been most
successful in the House of Commons, and, sustained only by his own
resources, had considerably modified the legislation of the government
which he opposed on a measure of paramount importance; when the nation,
which had long watched him with interest, began to congratulate itself
on the devotion of such a man to the business of the country, he was in
an instant taken from us. Then it was that, the memory of the past and
the hope of the future blending together, all men seemed to mourn over
this untimely end, and there was that pang in the public heart which
accompanies the unexpected disappearance of a strong character.
What manner of man this was, who thus on a sudden in the middle term of
life relinquished all the ease and pleasure of a patrician existence to
work often eighteen hours daily, not for a vain and brilliant notoriety,
which was foreign alike both to his tastes and his turn of mind, but for
the advancement of principles, the advocacy of which in the chief scene
of his efforts was sure to obtain for him only contention and unkindly
feelings; what were his motives, purposes and opinions; how and why
did he labour; what were the whole scope and tendency of this original,
vigorous, and self-schooled intelligence; these would appear to be
subjects not unworthy of contemplation, and especially not uninteresting
to a free and political community.
The difficulty of treating cotemporary characters and events has been
ever acknowledged; but it may be doubted whether the difficulty is
diminished when we would commemorate the men and things that have
preceded us. The cloud of passion in the first instance, or in the
other the mist of time, may render it equally hard and perplexing to
discriminate.
It should not be forgotten that the most authentic and interesting
histories are those which have been composed by actors in the
transactions which they record. The cotemporary writer who is personally
familiar with his theme has unquestionably a great advantage; but it is
assumed that his pen can scarcely escape the bias of private friendship
or political connection. Yet truth, after all, is the sovereign passion
of mankind; nor is the writer of these pages prepared to relinquish his
conviction that it is possible to combine the accuracy of the present
with the impartiality of the future.
Lord George Bentinck had sat for eighteen years in Parliament, and,
before he entered it, had been for three years private secretary to Mr.
Canning, who had married the sister of the Duchess of Portland. Such a
post would seem a happy commencement of a public career; but whether
it were the untimely death of his distinguished relative, or a natural
indisposition, Lord George--though he retained the seat for King’s
Lynn, in which he had succeeded his uncle, the late governor-general of
India--directed his energies to other than parliamentary pursuits. For
some time he had followed his profession, which was that of arms, but
of late years he had become absorbed in the pastime and fortunes of the
turf, in which his whole being seemed engrossed, and which he pursued on
a scale that perhaps has never been equalled.
Lord George had withdrawn his support from the government of the Duke of
Wellington, when the friends of Mr. Canning quitted that administration;
and when in time they formed not the least considerable portion of the
cabinet of Lord Grey, he resumed his seat on the ministerial benches. On
that occasion an administrative post was offered him and declined; and
on subsequent occasions similar requests to him to take office were
equally in vain. Lord George, therefore, was an original and hearty
supporter of the Reform Bill, and he continued to uphold the Whigs in
all their policy until the secession of Lord Stanley, between whom and
himself there subsisted warm personal as well as political sympathies.
Although he was not only a friend to religious liberty, as we shall have
occasion afterwards to remark, but always viewed with great sympathy
the condition of the Roman Catholic portion of the Irish population, he
shrank from the taint of the ultra-montane intrigue. Accompanying
Lord Stanley, he became in due time a member of the great Conservative
opposition, and, as he never did anything by halves, became one of
the most earnest, as he certainly was one of the most enlightened,
supporters of Sir Robert Peel. His trust in that minister was indeed
absolute, and he has subsequently stated in conversation that when,
towards the end of the session of ‘45, a member of the Tory party
ventured to predict and denounce the impending defection of the
minister, there was no member of the Conservative party who more
violently condemned the unfounded attack, or more readily impugned the
motives of the assailant.
He was not a very frequent attendant in the House. He might be counted
on for a party division, and when, towards the termination of the
Melbourne ministry, the forces were very nearly balanced, and the
struggle became very close, he might have been observed, on more
than one occasion, entering the House at a late hour, clad in a
white great-coat, which softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet
hunting-coat.
Although he took no part in debate, and attended the House rather as a
club than as a senate, he possessed a great and peculiar influence in
it. He was viewed with interest, and often with extraordinary regard,
by every sporting man in the House. With almost all of these he was
acquainted; some of them, on either side, were his intimate companions
and confederates.
His eager and energetic disposition; his quick perception, clear
judgment, and prompt decision; the tenacity with which he clung to his
opinions; his frankness and love of truth; his daring and speculative
spirit; his lofty bearing, blended as it was with a simplicity of manner
very remarkable; the ardour of his friendships, even the fierceness
of his hates and prejudices--all combined to form one of those strong
characters who, whatever may be their pursuit, must always direct and
lead.
Nature had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form which was
in perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character. He was tall
and remarkable for his presence; his countenance almost a model of manly
beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling; the forehead
lofty and white; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the upper
lip short. But it was in the dark-brown eye, which flashed with piercing
scrutiny, that all the character of the man came forth: a brilliant
glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of deception
or of being deceived.
Although he had not much sustained his literary culture, and of late
years, at any rate, had not given his mind to political study, he had
in the course of his life seen and heard a great deal, and with profit.
Nothing escaped his observation; he forgot nothing and always thought.
So it was that on all the great political questions of the day he had
arrived at conclusions which guided him. He always took large views
and had no prejudices about things, whatever he might indulge in as
to persons. He was always singularly anxious to acquire the truth, and
would spare no pains for that purpose; but when once his mind was made
up, it was impossible to influence him.
In politics, he was a Whig of 1688, which became him, modified, however,
by all the experience of the present age. He wished to see our society
founded on a broad basis of civil and religious liberty. He retained
much of the old jealousy of the court, but had none of popular
franchises. He was for the Established Church, but for nothing more,
and was very repugnant to priestly domination. As for the industrial
question, he was sincerely opposed to the Manchester scheme, because
he thought that its full development would impair and might subvert our
territorial constitution, which he held to be the real security of our
freedom, and because he believed that it would greatly injure Ireland,
and certainly dissolve our colonial empire.
He had a great respect for merchants, though he looked with some
degree of jealousy on the development of our merely foreign trade. His
knowledge of character qualified him in a great degree to govern men.
and if some drawbacks from this influence might be experienced in his
too rigid tenacity of opinion, and in some quickness of temper, which,
however, always sprang from a too sensitive heart, great compensation
might be found in the fact that there probably never was a human being
so entirely devoid of conceit and so completely exempt from selfishness.
Nothing delighted him more than to assist and advance others. All the
fruits of his laborious investigations were always at the service of
his friends without reserve or self-consideration. He encouraged them
by making occasions for their exertions, and would relinquish his own
opportunity without a moment’s hesitation, if he thought the abandonment
might aid a better man.